The Emotion Traders ruled their billion-dollar empire with an iron fist. The first corporations to successfully reverse engineer the neurochemical cocktails behind human emotions, they ruthlessly crushed any upstart competition. Entire countries fell under their sway through trade deals, exploitation of laws, and outright bribery.
At the very apex presided the Four Grandmasters – elderly tycoons who had been the pioneering founders over a century ago. Though they lived lives of unimaginable luxury, indulging in the most rarefied elixirs, rumors persisted that no amount of synthesized feeling could satisfy their need for more. Cold and devoid of true warmth, they chased the ever-elusive dragon of authenticity.
Below the Grandmasters, legions of chemists, behavioral scientists and geneticists labored in secured compounds, tasked with developing the newest boutique blends and delivery methods. Bioviral vectors allowed emotions to be absorbed through the skin or dispersed as airborne nanoparticles. Restricted neuropeptides heightened the intensity to suprahuman levels. The innovations flowed in a never-ending stream.
Alia’s father worked in one of the lower echelons as an extractor, responsible for draining and harvesting the base emotional matter from cloned batches of unconscious “donors.” Though the controversial process remained shrouded in secrecy, horrific stories constantly leaked of screaming children being drained to emotional husks. Her father came home haggard and haunted each night, empty from the soul-crushing labor.
The masterminded system of manufacturing and global distribution functioned with the brutal efficiency of a machine devouring human feeling itself. Armies of deliverymen, suppliers and security enforcers maintained the flow of product through every level of society, from the diamond-filtered bliss of the penthouse elite to the squalid outlands getting their doses from unmarked airdrops.
To Alia and all her kin, the Emotion Traders painted themselves as mere suppliers meeting the endless demand of humanity’s cravings. But she could never shake the feeling of a sinister unseen agenda guiding their machinations, something dark and hungry beyond just greed…
Life's Adventure 